Thranduil Oropherion
by GreenleafEverlove
Summary: A talk about Thranduil, in the hobbit movie.


Special thanks to the lawyer novelist , I want share this with everyone.

Thranduil is the _most vilified character in the entire trilogy_ , and arguably has the most miserable ending.

And when it comes to that writing rule? This is the way the film-makers made Thranduil. They can't lay this on the fact that it's an adaptation, because the Tauriel subplot was made out of whole cloth and actively damages the original canon plot because of Kili's involvement. Also, _this_ is canon Thranduil (though I say so myself). The movie has deliberately changed him into this arrogant, racist, humourless, isolationist, cold-hearted, selfish sack of crap. And then it punishes him for being that way.

But what does that characterisation of Thranduil serve? Well, it serves audience perception of Thorin and Tauriel. Those two are the people to whom Thranduil is opposed. I've already called Thorin a Sue on multiple occasions, and Tauriel does not smell of roses right now, but exact classification is actually irrelevant; I think it's pretty easy to make the step and say that when Thranduil is being vilified by the narrative, what he's being vilified for is his opposition to Thorin and Tauriel. And the vilification actually hits the hardest in the Tauriel plotline.

Yeah, that's the place where you hear less about him wanting to protect his people than you do about him thinking that mortal lives are worthless. That's were you see that he's a racist as well as a coward. That's where he's portrayed as completely unreasonably harsh to Tauriel, not just cold to Thorin.

Also, that's where he gets his resolution. And what a resolution it is.

First, we have the High Treason scene, in which apparently none of his surviving men are prepared to step in and defend him.

Then we have the scene with Tauriel, in which asshole!Thranduil is softened by the power of love and admits that he was wrong and Tauriel was right. I have no other explanation for what happened right there, because this is out of character for both versions of Thranduil. This is the narrative turning to the audience and saying "See?"

But nastiest is his scene with Legolas. Let's see what we've established about Thranduil, especially his family life, shall we? And I'll give the movie all the credit I can possibly manage and assume they were making a concerted attempt to make Thranduil complex and sympathetic rather than just tacking something on because they suddenly realised he was really popular.

He really wants to protect his people and ensure that as many survive these dark times as he can possibly manage, no matter what other choices he has to make to achieve that goal. Many years ago, he lost his wife to orcs and is still in mourning for her. The last memento he had was a necklace, which was stolen from him by the dwarves of Erebor and he will move hell and high water to get it back (we'll pretend that the ownership of that necklace was ever established). He deeply loves his son but hasn't been able to form a proper emotional connection with him; when Legolas sides with Tauriel over him, it's heartbreaking for him (thank you, Pace's acting; this is the one thing on this list with which I cannot quarrel).

And now let's look at what this scene shows, shall we? Let's look at how Thranduil ends the movie.

He's standing alone in an empty building. Either all his men are dead, or they've abandoned him (once again, I draw attention to the High Treason scene and how not one of them did a thing to help him against Tauriel). We never hear the slightest hint that he got that necklace. It's probably actually pure sloppiness, but still. His son is turning his back on him and declaring that he can never return home for no possible reason I can see except his treatment of Tauriel. In this interaction, _Thranduil_ is the one who has to apologise despite Legolas' treatment of him being significantly worse. Legolas hasn't even got a word of farewell for Thranduil or an emotional reaction to Thranduil's last words about his mother. The last shot of Thranduil is him looking heartbroken as he watches Legolas go.

This trilogy has calculatedly destroyed Thranduil. It has taken everything away that he prized and not given him a thing in return, it has vilified him and twisted him out of character to make him praise and glorify Tauriel, it has shown everyone hating and abandoning him, and the last we see of him his son has just called him an asshole and walked out of his life _because he was not sufficiently nice to Tauriel_.

 **Thank you for reading, share your thoughts if you want, I like to read other people opinions about this**


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